IRS
IR-2018-241, December 4, 2018 Español

WASHINGTON — To help protect against cybercriminals stealing identities, the IRS, state tax agencies and the nation's tax industry urged people to review new, stronger standards to protect the passwords of their online accounts.

Every individual or tax practitioner who maintains any type of online accounts should use strong passwords to protect against savvy cybercriminals taking over their identities and accessing sensitive tax and financial data.

But there's been some new thinking as to what a strong password is. The latest guidance suggests using a passphrase such as a favorite line from a movie or a series of associated words rather than using a password. The idea is to create a passphrase that can be remembered easily and protect the account. This means passwords like – “uE*s3P%8V)” – are out. Longer, personal phrases people can remember – for example, SunWalkRainDrive – are now preferred. Read more.